Follow Your Bliss

5th March, 2009 No Comments

Yesterday, Barnes & Noble* announced the winners of their Discover Awards (Fiction and Non-Fiction).  The day ended with a reading at one of the BN locations in downtown Manhattan and I went because Eric Weiner was one of the six finalists – all of whom would be reading. 

Weiner sounds NPR.  His writing is funnier when you hear it as it must sound in his head.  He didn’t seem very grumpy. 

I probably should not have been, but was, surprised at how many of the finalists were really not good readers.  Granted, writing and reading are not mutually exclusive.  Weiner was a little too fast, as was fiction winner Gin Philips (The Well and the Mine), but other wise good.  You could hear that the writing was great – third place fiction writer Zachary Lazar really captures place and emotion in Sway, but I couldn’t get past how blandly he read while first place non-fiction writer David Sheff (Beautiful Boy) promised a good reading as his introduction was moving and well spoken only to dry up when he began.

The two exceptions were second place fiction writer Benjamin Taylor (The Book of Getting Even) and third place non-fiction writer Nia Wyn (Blue Sky July).  Taylor happened to be behind me on the way out and was commenting to his companions about his reading with their reassurances that he was the best reader.  He clearly was and had most likely stood in front of a mirror practicing pace and tone.  As she introduced her book, Wyn said “It is a love story.” It is, and combined with her soft voice, was just really moving and brought me to tears.

The art, and it really is an art, of reading out-loud for entertainment seems to have died a long time ago; sort of a ”video killed the radio star” problem.  Televisions popularity brought about the end of radio soap operas and spoken performance. Outside of a poetry reading or writers night, spoken word does not exist.  We don’t gather at friends houses and pass the time with a little dancing, some board games, and maybe a reading.  Family time is often spent around the boob-tube rather than sharing in the same novel as one person reads to the group.  Like many of the things I like, I think it a shame despite it’s lack of place in modern society.

Post reading (which took all of 40 minutes if that) the authors were available to sign books.  After reading The Geography of Bliss, I had gone out and purchased my own copy and moved over all my sticky tabs before returning the first copy to the library.  Weiner commented that my copy looked like his prior to a reading before writing “Follow Your Bliss” on the cover page.  I’m pretty sure that’s the name of a B52’s song, but it is good advice.

I found all the books to be interesting and have added them to my list, although not being a Rolling Stones fan, I most likely won’t pick-up Sway.

*Yes, I’m aware of the irony that this is a Barnes & Noble award but that I am linking to Amazon.

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